Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots Review

Is Puss in Boots a cheap cash-in, or a smart Fruit Ninja extension?

I expected Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots to be a standard movie tie-in game – slicing fruit with cat claws instead of swords, and Antonio Bandaras spouting one-liners. Instead, Halfbrick has gone all-out with Puss in Boots, creating an excellent extension to their 2010 smash hit. The game's new "Bandito" mode tasks players with completing a gauntlet of 13 Wario Ware-esque fruit-slicing minigames, breathing new life into Halfbrick's simple formula.

Did we like it?

Confession time: I think the original Fruit Ninja is one of the most overrated games on the App Store. Slicing fruit is frantic fun… once or twice. Then it just gets old. But Puss in Boots' minigames are exactly what Fruit Ninja needed. It's a lot of fun slicing fruits while avoiding a giant screen-filling bomb, or slicing fruits that pop up through shuttered windows, like a Wild West shooting gallery. The activities are just varied enough to keep the fruit slicing fresh.

Should you buy it?

Puss in Boots includes a basic arcade mode that will be familiar to all Fruit Ninja fans, as well as the bevy of new minigames. This essentially makes it a better, more robust package than the original. Since they're both available for just $0.99, that makes Puss in Boots a no-brainer purchase. Hopefully Halfbrick has even more smart Fruit Ninja extensions in the works.